Customize Your Gridlines And Borders In Excel 2007

If you are a regular user of Microsoft Excel 2007 then you will know how important gridlines are

. If you are working with a large, dense amount of data then it is vital that that data is set out in the clearest and most accessible fashion. Excel's gridlines provide a clear border between sets of information so that no data is confused or misinterpreted.

For this reason there are various methods that you can use to distinguish the gridlines in your Excel spreadsheet even more. The most obvious way of highlighting gridlines is to alter their colour. This command can be found in the Advanced Excel Options menu under Display Options. If your spreadsheet is themed in some way a relevant colour for your gridlines may be a nice touch. Alternatively, you may just want to make the information stand out more; if so a bold colour such as red will be useful.

As valuable as gridlines are on the screen they are not present when the spreadsheet is printed. This is to provide a cleaner, less cluttered look to the document as opposed to the rigidity and formalised structure that gridlines suggest. However, there are times when printed gridlines can be necessary and even desirable. In cases like these it is a simple matter to alter the print settings to ensure that your document prints with gridlines intact. Select page layout on the ribbon and then from there click page setup. Ticking the gridlines box will give you a printed spreadsheet replete with gridlines.

The reverse of this exercise is also true, since as you can remove the gridlines on the screen version of your workbook. Whilst this may be wise for certain types of spreadsheet you should be careful that doing so will not result in confusion between cells and the data within them. To hide gridlines on your spreadsheet go to the show/hide group in the view tab and clear the gridlines box.

Whilst these various tricks can be performed on gridlines it is not possible to customize them to the extent that cells and borders can be customized. For example you can create a custom border by going into the cell styles option and selecting new cell styles. This will allow you to create a name for the specific style as well as select the line and colour that you want to use. Then under the border option you can select the border that suits the project best. To apply this customized style to cells on your spreadsheet simply select the appropriate cells and then click on your new cell style in the styles group.

These methods for changing gridlines and cell borders may appear straightforward but a good many people do not realise that it is possible to do such things. Many of Excel's default settings can be customized to a greater or lesser extent if you know where to look and what steps to follow. Proper training in Microsoft Excel will open up a whole world of handy tips and tricks to get your workbooks looking their best.

by: Rich Talbot

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